In "Broken Bow", Bakersfield stood in for Broken Bow in Oklahoma, the place on which the KlingonKlaangcrash landed on Earth. The scenes in the cornfield, the showdown in the silo, and the shots of the house of farmer Moore were filmed on 12 June2001 and 13 June2001. The call sheets feature the comment "Dress for location; hot weather, dusty environment, bugs and unlevel terrain abound".

In early-April 2008, the second unit of J.J. Abrams' Star Trek used Bakersfield for location shooting, where the roads outside town stood in for the roads at Riverside, Iowa. The car chase involving young James Kirk in his uncle's Corvette was filmed here. During filming on 8 April2008, the crew caused a minor traffic accident, when the site manager crashed with another car. [1]

The filming conitnued in the next few days. On 10 April2008 the TrekMovie website posted another location report from Bakersfield, where the shooting became "big news" for the local media. The crew moved to a local farm to film the scenes of young Kirk at his uncle's home, which ended up as a deleted scene. Paramount kept a high level of secrecy and didn't release any information to the locals about the production they were filming. [2]